The downtown theatre troupe The Amoralists will stage the world premiere of Derek Ahonen's The Cheaters Club and the New York premiere of Mark Roberts' Rantoul and Die as part of a 12-week summer season.

Playwright Roberts will direct Rantoul and Die, which will run June 5-July 20 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. According to the Amoralists, "In the play, Rallis and Debbie's marriage has reached its expiration date. In fact, it's soured and stuck to the bottom of the carton. She wants him to pack his stuff and hit the bricks, but he's clinging to the past like a cat on a screen door. How far will a man go to hang onto his lady? It's a thin line between love and hate, between a kiss and a punch, between an ice cream cone and a beer bottle to the back of the head."

Following will be the world premiere of The Cheaters Club by Amoralists resident playwright Ahonen. It will run Aug. 12-Sept. 21 at the Abrons Arts Center. Here's how it's billed: "The Cheaters Club is a Southern-sized Savannah murder mystery that creeps out of the shadows. In the play, siblings Tommy, Jimmy and Cathy, along with brand-new recruit Vonn, are the Cheaters Club. Once a year, the gang gets out of town to get it on, with no spouses or strings attached, to exorcise their sexual demons. This year's destination is the haunted Chaney Inn in Savannah, run by a mysterious family and their voodoo-ing housemaid. The dark and unresolved history of the inn is still being written, and The Cheaters Club may very well be the final chapter."

"The Cheaters Club will be my ninth play that The Amoralists have brought to life," Ahonen said in a statement. "The tremendous courage and endless talent that the ensemble brings to every production has inspired me to push myself farther than I ever imagined I'd go. With last season's The Bad and the Better, The Amoralists enthusiastically encouraged me to explore large-cast, genre-driven storytelling... A request that very few companies would dare make in this current theatrical climate. With The Cheaters Club, the large-cast storytelling continues as I move my genre to horror and setting to Savannah. I'm thrilled that The Amoralists will be coming along for yet another daring ride."

The Amoralists is a theatre company that produces work of no moral judgment. Dedicated to an honest expression of the American condition, the actor-driven ensemble explores complex characters of moral ambiguity.